Recent Work: “The Shadow Walker” book jacket

I designed and illustrated this book jacket for art director Rita Frangie at Berkley Books. Set in present day Mongolia, The Shadow Walker, by Michael Walters, spins a tale of corporate espionage and murder. The editors were looking for a “film noir” atmosphere, as suggested by the title. Much of the action in the book alternates between lonely, abandoned Soviet era factories and the stark beauty of the Gobi desert, and I wanted to show both on the cover. Below are the four sketches I presented, the finished artwork, and progressive states of the digital final in Photoshop. Notice the miniature Gobi desert setup on my work table. The red symbol replacing the letter “A” in “Walker” is the emblem featured on the Mongolian flag.